People often ask…

People often ask, “How do you come up with ideas for your books?”

When you have an imaginary friend plaguing you at all hours of the day, it’s easy. 

I refer to this entity as GUE (God, the universe, and everything). 

Yes…I laughingly call it that. 

No…I’m not insane – yet.  I’m just endowed with an imagination that tends to go into overdrive.

Take, for example, tonight’s conversation with GUE.

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ME:     Hello GUE.  Here I am again asking you about God, the Universe and Everything.

GUE:   No you are not.  No one has put a curse on you.

ME::    Then why does this year continue to spiral downward?

GUE:   Your new book is about to be published.

ME:      That is only as good as the number of people who purchase it.  I’m not doing well on my job.

GUE:   You perceive that you are not doing well on your job.

ME:      My new boss hates me.

GUE:    He has to be that way toward everyone in the office.  He is trying to save your non-profit.

ME:      By focusing on money instead of the people we’re supposed to be serving?

GUE:   You cannot serve anyone if the company is bankrupt.

ME:      The monitors won’t care about that.

GUE:    You are angry.

ME:       DUH!!  I’m 73 and I feel worthless. Now I know what people who were born in 1850 felt like when the 1920’s hit.

GUE:    That is true.

ME:      The change in the past 20 years have NOT been for the better.  Statues of Jefferson and Washington are being torn down but there are no arrests.  Someone who destroys a homemade statue of satan is arrested for a hate crime.

GUE:    Why do you think this is happening?

ME:       For the same reason that 2024 has, so far, been a complete disaster.

GUE:    Remember the Younger Dryas?

ME:       I’m not 12,500 years old.

GUE:    The great flood occurred. It was worldwide and wiped out most of a civilization more advanced than yours.

ME:       So you’re saying that another meteor or comet is going to hit the ice cap?

GUE:    No. This time, you will kill each other through weapons that will rip a hole in the universe.

ME:       So then, we’re going to take out the entire universe this time instead of raising the entire water level of Earth by 200 feet?

GUE:    Think of the universe as a tire on your car. Think of nuclear weapons as the nail that punctures the tire.

ME:       If the driver panics, the entire car can be demolished.

GUE:     No.  It will not affect all of existence. The tire merely has to be replaced.

ME:       You’re saying that if we kill each other off with our present nuclear capabilities that we really will take our entire universe along with us?

GUE:     Yes.

ME:        That’s insane!

GUE:  (chuckling) No…that is reality. You are experiencing personal hardship and change that is overwhelming to your mind and body. That does not compare with the destruction of the universe out of ignorance.

ME:        I have the flu. I’m too sick for this.

GUE:     In a manner of speaking, your entire civilization is too sick for the technology it possesses.

ME:        I know what you’re trying to do.  You’re trying to make me feel as if my present life is NOT a total disaster.

GUE:      No.  I am asking you to consider the difference between a small tornado and a 200 foot tidal wave hitting the entire coast of Florida.  Both may be destructive, but the tidal wave will affect the lives of far more living beings than a small tornado.

ME:        Okay…let’s say that all the governments of the world grow a brain and don’t use nuclear weapons.  What then?

GUE:     There will be another cataclysm in your future, one that will not tear the universe apart.

ME:        My brain is already in overdrive.  My life is a downward spiral, and now I find out that this primitive planet is about to crap in its own food. If we don’t die from nuclear dysentery, the party will be destroyed by a thunderstorm out of nowhere.

GUE:      An adequate analogy. Choosing between terrible bad luck and catastrophic bad luck is never easy.

ME:         Not comforting.

GUE:       Look toward the future by concentrating on your books.  Be kind to others. 

ME:         Platitudes.

GUE:       Perhaps.  But what better things do you have to do than to take your mind off the impending destruction of your universe?

ME:         Think about ways of to turn this conversation into another book.

GUE:   (chuckling)  I advise you not to wait too long to do so.